Diplomats Approve Peace Plan For Kosovo

But Military Buildup Continues As Milosevic Refuses To Back Down

January 23, 1999|By Ray Moseley, Tribune Foreign Correspondent.

LONDON — Western and Russian diplomats approved a peace plan Friday for the Yugoslav province of Kosovo even as NATO continued to build up military forces and warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic he hasn't done enough yet to remove its threat of airstrikes.

The plan, drafted by U.S. envoy Christopher Hill, was approved by the six-nation Contact Group for former Yugoslavia and will be presented separately next week to Milosevic and ethnic Albanians fighting for independence for Kosovo.

Foreign ministers of the Contact Group, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, are expected to meet in London next Friday to issue formal invitations to peace negotiations.

The plan calls for a restoration of autonomy in Kosovo, with the province taking charge of its own police and holding free elections. Its status would be reviewed after three years.

Milosevic stripped Kosovo of its autonomy in 1989, setting the stage for the current conflict.

In a statement after its meeting, the Contact Group condemned the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanians last weekend and demanded that Yugoslav military officers who were in the village of Racak that day be suspended pending an international investigation. The Jan. 15 massacre occurred when Serbian forces apparently sought to avenge the deaths of three police officers, international monitors said in a report obtained Friday.

The Contact Group also insisted that Yugoslavia "cooperate fully" with the international war crimes tribunal and allow its investigators unimpeded access to Kosovo. Earlier this week, Yugoslavia refused to allow Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor for the tribunal, and her aides into Kosovo.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, visiting Ireland, backed the mounting pressure on Milosevic. "I would want us all to put real collective pressure and sustain it on President Milosevic in the hope that we will get an agreement and he will understand the implications of any escalation," he said.

While senior diplomats of the Contact Group met, France sent its aircraft carrier Foch steaming toward the Adriatic Sea off the Yugoslav coast, and the French air force prepared to send eight Mirage 2000 C interceptors and four Mirage 2000 D ground-attack aircraft to the area.

Defense Minister Alain Richard said France would have around 40 fighter planes stationed in Italy by the end of next week. Norway sent six F-16 fighter jets to Italy, and Hercules C-130 transport planes began ferrying 230 military personnel and equipment there.

Earlier this week, the United States ordered the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and its battle group to the Adriatic.

While political and military leaders renewed threats to attack Yugoslavia if Milosevic does not comply with agreements on Kosovo reached last October, the emphasis Friday was on finding a political solution. Until now Milosevic and Kosovan separatists have balked at a negotiated solution to the conflict, and a spokesman for the Kosovo Liberation Army reiterated Friday his group's opposition to any proposal that does not guarantee independence.

Pleurat Sejdiu, political representative of the guerrillas, also told a London news conference that the dispute could only be solved by military means.

The Contact Group consists of the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, whose country traditionally supports Yugoslavia, warned Friday that any use of force "could be the detonator for a new war" in the Balkans.

But Russian officials have been applying diplomatic pressure on Belgrade to honor its commitments since the massacre in Racak triggered the current threats of NATO military retaliation.

NATO member Greece--like Russia, traditionally aligned with Serbia--also opposed airstrikes. But Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, in strong language, said Serbia had missed an opportunity to make peace and failed to understand that human rights are an international issue.

Pangalos urged Belgrade to punish severely those responsible for the massacre of civilians.

Milosevic has partially backed down on a threat to expel U.S. diplomat William Walker, head of an 800-member international verification force in Kosovo. Walker had made comments blaming the massacre on Serbian forces. Officials said Milosevic agreed to "freeze" the expulsion order for the remainder of this year.

That did not fully satisfy NATO officials, who want the order lifted, and they pointed out that Milosevic still is in violation of agreements he made to withdraw forces from Kosovo and to allow the UN war crimes tribunal to have access to the province.

Milosevic has allowed a Finnish team to go to Kosovo to help conduct autopsies on victims of the massacre.

U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander for Europe, said in Naples that Milosevic still was defying the will of the international community. He urged him to "comply and do it now."